ITNESI History Thread

[Kal'thzar]

Basks in the glory that is my empire

Before my merchant manage to civilise half the bloody world.

 

[North King]

Actually, I don't really need to. I don't have further ambitions in the west. And aside from its colonial outposts, Kalinga really shouldn't have any in the east, especially given it only rules half a subcontinent.

Half a subcontinent is enough

There's only one person I fear right now.

BananaLee?

That said it was sort of odd you were so lenient, but meh. I blame Insane_Panda for returning for a turn or two just to mess everything up.

It's because I have a kind heart. Be thankful.

Things would likely have gone somewhat different if my orders to attack had been in on time instead of a turn late as well...

LOL, I was in the zone that turn, so... You probably would have been attacked and killed.

 

[Symphony D.]

LOL, I was in the zone that turn, so... You probably would have been attacked and killed.

I didn't get any stat upgrades that turn since my orders were late. You weren't expecting that theater (evidenced by Tumasek's successes), and I would've had more troops the next turn. Plus Sinhala might have joined on my side if war was already on. Regardless the war would have been far bloodier and to combat my threat you would've had to have diverted resources from Deccania, or finished there before attacking me, in which case the situation on your eastern front would have been even worse.

If Sinhala had joined it it would only have exaccerbated things.

That's not even getting into the appeal to get Bactrasha to attack Mohenjo-daro. What kind of idiot barbarian nation ransoms trade cities right on the border and doesn't backstab the other negotiating party by invading again and taking them? Especially when said party's army is far away? But I digress.

The only ambitions on any of your territories I really have are perhaps buying some colonies later.

I'll be honest though that most of my actions were driven by paranoia.

 

[North King]

I didn't get any stat upgrades that turn since my orders were late. You weren't expecting that theater (evidenced by Tumasek's successes), and I would've had more troops the next turn. Plus Sinhala might have joined on my side if war was already on. Regardless the war would have been far bloodier and to combat my threat you would've had to have diverted resources from Deccania, or finished there before attacking me, in which case the situation on your eastern front would have been even worse.

You underestimate my POWAR!

Um, the East wasn't important at all to Kalinga. We would have put off the problem in Deccania, letting them try to fortify what they had left, and turned to mash your peoples into pulps.

If Sinhala had joined it it would only have exaccerbated things.

Why should they have done that? Land in India would be untenable, colonies worthless compared to Kalinga's wrath.

The only ambitions on any of your territories I really have are perhaps buying some colonies later.

Dream on.

I'll be honest though that most of my actions were driven by paranoia.

Effing wierd, since I'm the most peaceful player in the game I know of. Deccania provoked me, Tumasek attacked me, other than that, I fought no wars.

 

[Communisto]

You underestimate my POWAR!

I don't know why that made me laugh so hard.

 

[das]

Powar is Polish-accented Russian for "cook".

Plus Sinhala might have joined on my side if war was already on.

The Sinhalese don't have any particular reason to like Kalinga, nor any particular reasons to hate it, albeit given the right circumstances (such as a new player taking over, ala Communisto)...

And as for Bactrasha, they had other things to do at that time.

 

[Dachs]

@ Communisto: Y hello thar.

@das: Har har, new player a la Communisto. I just thought of another thing: Rome and Byzantium were both descended of Trojan stock, so why on Earth would they want to be hostile? If the Bible had been written by then, I would have compared it to Cain and Abel.

 

[Capulet]

Rome and Byzantium were both descended of Trojan stock, so why on Earth would they want to be hostile?

Why? Katryria.

 

[das]

Well, remember - according to BT I, Aeneus was in this world expelled from Troy (see all those other noble families that say that they were unjustly expelled from wherever). So its more of a feud. Then again, Eram was, from what I gather, but a general, so he isn't from the same dynasty as the one that expelled Aeneus, now, is he?

 

[Dachs]

Well, remember - according to BT I, Aeneus was in this world expelled from Troy (see all those other noble families that say that they were unjustly expelled from wherever). So its more of a feud. Then again, Eram was, from what I gather, but a general, so he isn't from the same dynasty as the one that expelled Aeneus, now, is he?

According to my nation description, (post 42, ITNES I thread), Aeneas founded Rome, fleeing from the "ruins of a Greek city". You just misspoke in the BT I update...or just changed it for your own gain!

 

[das]

Hmm? Well, considering that Troy survived, anything is possible.

 

[das]

BT III - Years 180-0 BC

Americas:

Olmecia continued to be a predominant power in this region. After the victory in Yucatan, the Olmecs only needed to consolidate gains and assimilate the conquered peoples. In that they succeeded, but gradually, stagnation set in, for the lack of any serious enemies. Half-hearted expansion in both directions continued, but it was just that - halfhearted. Most Jaguar Warriors were content to guard their own lands.

So the Carib (it has been undetermined whether or not they belonged to the Fatbiter's tribe, though) raid in 77 BC that killed off the (yet another) Crown Prince and nearly captured Laventa, was a rude but needed awakening. In the chaos that ensued, a new Crown Prince rose to power, built up a fleet, defeated several follow-up raids and took away the autonomy from southern Mayans, as a punishment for their alleged assistance to the raiders. Olmec expansion intensified, but the Crown Prince unfortunately died in battle in 54 BC, and the barbarian tribes had time to recover. Thus, Mayan tribes succesfully fled further south, to Lake Miquitla[1], whereas most of the Cuiculco tribes formed a single confederation. Teotihuacan also rose as a temporary threat to the Olmecs, but they finally subdued it in 14 BC.

It was hardly an easy task, but gradually, the Carib tribes succeeded in uniting their island, though it was filled with violent civil strife and, on the other hand, Olmec cultural influence, especially in the capital - Ajabinga, also the only thing that could be called a city on the island. Raids against Carib tribes on other islands continued, and some hotheads occasionally even attacked the Olmecs themselves.

Also, the Mesoamerican civilization, spearheaded by the Olmecs, reached Early Copper Age recently.

In circa. 50 BC, civilization appeared in the Andes; that is to say, a complex culture was evolving there for some time now, but only in this period did it become a truly developed culture, as three states arose - Huancac, Pachacamac and Nazca. They all are surrounded by Moche and Paracas barbarian tribes.

Europe:

Already since the conquest of Portugal by the Carthaginians, a fairly large amount of the Portuguese freelance sailors settled down in Hibernia[2], most of them intermarrying with the locals and raiding maritime trade routes left and right (which was not hard - there was just one real trade route to Hibernia at the time). However, it was only after the Great Transpoenic War's Carthaginian punitive expedition (that depopulated Portugal altogether) that a large amount of Portuguese refugees begun fleeing, with the tacit support of the Hibernian pirates, for "Northern Portugal". The refugees eventually founded the city of Nord Lisbon, and, albeit coming into conflict with native tribes, managed to eventually unite two-thirds of Hibernia (during the reign of Laus the Great, r. 75-43 BC). In spite of Carthaginian embargo, Nord Lisbon became a great trade center, and under the Nortuguese (as the people of "Nortugal", formerly "Nord Portugal", were known) influence, several other states arose - Cymru (Wales), Armorica (Brittany/Bretagne) and, by extension, Belgia...

The increasing population pressure in Germany, the general instability of post-GTW Gaul, the temporary weakening of Carthage (see Africa) and the disruption of trade with Nortugal by the means of embargo were only the most important of factors that, in 124 BC caused "the Great Chaos" in Gaul. The death of Vercingetorix' mentally weak son was only a pretext. The Carthaginian puppet Gaelic state fell apart amongst civil strife, the Germannics surged forth into Gaul, whilst the Belgii, who were previously engaged in sporadic warfare with Carthage (the Belgii had accepted Kartyrian refugees, including Princess Jezebel, who married the Belgii warlord and after her death became, to the Belgii, something of a goddess), were forced to migrate slightly westwards... where they founded Belgia. Now, the Belgii themselves were mostly Celts, especially as the Kartyrians quickly intermarried; but the Kartyrian cultural influence was very heavy. Belgia only barely weathered the storm, but in 87 BC expansion commenced and Belgia consolidated itself.

As for the rest of Gaul... Well, gradually a semblance of peace was restored, but the Gaelic state was destroyed altogether, and the city of Yammyr was sacked by rampaging Germannic hordes. Carthaginians took over some southern provinces, though they themselves lost northernmost parts of Didonia (formerly Kartyria). Germannic tribes were driven out of Western Gaul by local tribes, but maintained a foothold in the east.

Weakened by the GTW, Rome underwent chronic instability in 150s, 140s and 130s BC, culminating in 134 BC, when the southern Greek cities, the Etruscan North and a group of Samnite-led Italic tribes seceded altogether. Only Carthage's own problems (see Africa) prevented Rome's death... Eventually, it was Scipio Felix who, in 86 BC, assumed full dictatorial powers, bluffed and bribed Carthage into neutrality, defeated his political enemies at Arretium and reunited Italy, apart from the lands north of Po River, which by then were occupied by Germanic tribes. Scipio died in 71 BC, and in spite of his son's attempt to take power for himself, the Republic was restored. After that, Rome underwent numerous reforms and begun preparing for revanche.

Gradually, Transpoenic trade recovered to pre-war levels.

In spite of high hopes placed on it by some, Ostland simply fell apart with Hermann II's death in 136 BC. It would seem that Germany is simply not fated for civilization... or is it?

Dacians, meanwhile, consolidated gains and built lots of fortresses. This has rather drained resources, but trade allowed Dacia to continue prospering somewhat after the plague ended.

An Empire Cult, in some senses more and in some senses less radical than the original (Carthaginian) one, arose in the Byzantine Empire, with Eram I deified and all other Emperors considered demi-gods. Now, it wasn't an instant success, but after a major Greek rebellion was put down, and a coup attempt in Byzantium itself failed, the people realized that they would have to live with it, even if not all accepted it. Regardless, major instability continued. Slightly better was the progress of Byzantine medicine and architecture to face the threat of the Dacian Fever; the Medical Academia of Byzantium became a major authority on, well, medicine, throughout the Western World.

The Huns, driven by the Bactrashans from their lands in 150 BC, bumped into Slavic tribes and drove them beyond the Dnieper; west of the river, however, the Slavs mounted a desperate defense, and as a result the Huns were, barely, stopped. For now...

And as for Bactrashans, ever since the Great Expedition of 156-149 BC they held a large, if mostly-useless and undefendable region of Europe south from River Don. But only small parts of that region could be even slightly colonized, and in the rest order could only last as long as there was a sizeable force deployed there...

Africa:

Carthage wasted much resources on keeping up with its neighbours militarily, and this slowed down economic development; not to mention frightened away what little allies Carthage still had (Egypt, Byzanitium). The increasingly-strong army even tried to launch a coup d'etat in 138 BC; though it failed, the rebels, led by General Imilco, started a civil war that lasted until their final defeat in 131 BC. This greatly weakened Carthage, especially as most Celtiberian tribes backed Imilco, and thus the perfect order set up in Iberia before was ruined, to be restored only in 64 BC, with the defeat of a final Celtiberian rebellion.

Regardless, Carthage, though in diplomatic isolation, remained very strong. It also expanded southwards, both along the coast and into Inner Berberia.

In spite of the break with Carthage, Egypt, too, developed an Empire Cult. Aside from that, Egypt concentrated on rebuilding its army and on strenghthening its commerce; to the later aim, the Sile Canal was built. In 84 BC, a campaign to reconquer Nubia has started; in spite of heavy resistance, the reformed Egyptian armies triumphed by 68 BC.

Meanwhile, to the south, the Kalingans invaded Cush (42 BC), for no real (known) reason. Egyptians quickly used this to steal over a half of the country in a well-planned attack, thus restoring in full their old Nilotic empire.

Ambitious Kalingan colonial plans for Southeastern Africa were not carried out for lack of resources and of anything at all to gain there. Still, due to Sinhalese competition, a certain amount of trade posts on the African mainland coast was established.

Middle East:

In 134 BC, with just ten days of difference, Bactrasha and Israel invaded Phoenicea. This prompted a major war (The Syrian War), during which Egypt allied with Bactrasha and Luca allied with Israel (in-formally, as the two nations still can't stand each other). Bactrasha won the Battle at Har Meggido, but high hopes associated with it proved unfounded, as major rebellions and heavy casualties prevented a Bactrashan invasion of Israel. Bactrasha had to go on the defensive, and eventually (in 117 BC) it signed a peace treaty, partitioning Phoenicea with Israel and Egypt, ceding some desert areas to it and also restoring to Luca the northern third of Western Assyria.

Domestically, all three empires continued to prosper. The capital of Luca was moved to the new great city, Nagara. A steady urbanization in Israel went on; after that, trade intensified with the government's backing, and minor missionary efforts took place. However, the Israeli fighting spirit was decaying because of the growing importance of trade and lack of warfare... Bactrasha continued slowly building up an imperial identity with the use of the unifying religion, Mithraism. Infrastructure was developed, centralization went on...

Peace reigned. But this being the Middle East, things couldn't quite last like this for as long as this without a violent explosion of warfare immediately after the Long Peace is over.

South Asia:

A major war happened in India as well. Emperor Garya of Mohenjo-daro died in 179 BC, and his successor, Rahul, was a fierce militarist and Kalingophobe. He undertook ambitious military reforms, started conscripting a vast army, etc... All this disturbed the Kalingans greatly, and so in 170 BC they launched a pre-emptive strike. But the Mohenjo-darans were, though not as much as Rahul would have liked it, ready. For seventeen years, the two great Indian powers were in a deadlock, admittedly in part because of Sinhalese support for Mohenjo-daro. But finally, the anti-Kalingan fleet was defeated at the Rann (157 BC), whilst the Mohenjo-daran counteroffensive was stopped at Ujjain. Sinhala dropped out of the war, ceding Soccotra, Nakkavaram[3] Islands and its Indian mainland possessions. Mohenjo-darans fought to the last, but gradually, Kalingans were advancing again when...

...in 155 BC, the Bactrashans invaded Mohenjo-daro, reached the Indus and stopped there. Rahul died defending his capital against the rampaging hordes. Kalingans, rather confused, got the Mohenjo-daran territory east from Indus without much of a fight (comparatively-speaking, ofcourse) - the Mohenjo-daran armies were demoralized, and by 153 BC all resistance has ceased. But what ensued was a very uneasy peace, with the menace of Bactrasha looming on Kalingan borders...

Severe diseases struck India in 70s-40s BC. But superior Kalingan medicine, which got only better as a result, managed to somehow lessen the damage done. Also, they adopted some of the Bactrashan political ideas, though not going as far as the Bactrashans did. This foreign influence, combined with the estrangement of the countryside from the cities, combined with the still-present religious variety, has somewhat destabilized Kalinga.

Southeast and East Asia:

The Tu-chueh Tribal Confederation rose during this time, developing trade ties with Bactrasha and Han China.

In these two regions, too, a major war came - in 122 BC, Emperor Tailong, using the ongoing Sulu Civil War (from 143 BC) which was distracting the Hong Kees, denounced the Wuxi-Hong Kee Treaty and invaded Hong Kong. The Hong Kees, already hard-pressed in Sulu, soon had to face the Chinese invasion, and in spite of fierce, well-prepared resistance, the Han forces plowed on. The entry of Nagasaki (by then unified with Choson and renamed into the Empire of the Rising Sun), Khmeria and Thuang into the war on the Han side settled it, really, but the Hong Kees fought on valourously, driving back superior forces. At least, that was how it was in Hong Kong Proper - the colonies were much less patriotic, often enough starting rebellions of their own. The war ended in 101 BC, with the fall of Hong Kong itself and the destruction of the last Hong Kee fleet just outside of it. The damage was immense, as was the treasury drain, but the victorious powers got large territorial compensation. The Sulu got independance and union with Luzon. The Khmers got Annam, Tumasek, and the Hong Kee parts of Sulawesi and Yehpoti. Rising Sunites got Ryukyu and Taiwan. As for Hong Kong Proper, it went to Han China, but the attempts to stomp out the rebel movements there brought about very temporary pacification... at best.

Aside from Hong Kong's downfall, resistance by the Hong Kees, a few peasant rebellions, sporadic warfare with Tungus and Turkic tribes by Han China and a brief civil war in Thuang (70s BC), that was all the violence in this region. The era of peace, however, was that of quiet before the storm. Also, in 90s BC, a horrible plague started in China, and greatly damaged lands as far as Bactrasha thanks to the developed trade in the region. Still, by now, things have recovered.

Oh, and the Khmers integrated Thuang into their Empire, using the civil war there and decades of careful intrigue.

The great southern island of New Sinhala saw some sporadic, and generally-pointless colonization efforts by Kalinga and Sinhala; in both cases, logistic problems and the dangerous nature of the coastline, prevented any serious colonization, not to mention that nobody, absolutely nobody wanted to go there. Eventually, in the north of the island two small outposts, one Kalingan and other Sinhalese, were established - for the sake of the trade with natives and of preempting the other side from "outflanking" the other's colonies.

OOC:

[1] Lake Miquitla=Lake Managua.

[2] Hibernia=Ireland.

[3] Nakkavaram=Nicobar.

Apologies about quality, also about not carrying out all of your orders, if need be I can explain everything but I hope that its clear anyway. It was very rushed towards the end...

 

[das]

Or AD. Or CE.

 

[Dachs]

Have we developed the concept of zero as a non-placeholder in the West, where is it, how has it spread, etc.? I read this book by Charles Seife over the summer, called Zero, and was more in-detail than I wish to go...Anyway, without the "Greek thinking" that ******** the acceptance of zero in the West (since Byzantium replaced it), do we have a 0 per se?

 

[das]

Heh, not sure. But I guess that its quite possible. Maybe the Lucans (who didn't exist in OTL, and hence are a convenient plot device) could have invented it?

 

[silver 2039]

Have we developed the concept of zero as a non-placeholder in the West, where is it, how has it spread, etc.? I read this book by Charles Seife over the summer, called Zero, and was more in-detail than I wish to go...Anyway, without the "Greek thinking" that ******** the acceptance of zero in the West (since Byzantium replaced it), do we have a 0 per se?

India invented zero and the decimal system OTL for you information. I'm tired of this Eurocentraisim.

 

[das]

Indians invented it, but were too greedy to share with the Europeans.

 

[Toteone]

(inspired by a Thrashmetal band I read about in the funnies)
Hey das, perchance; what if a part of my society wishes to hunt and eat WHALES instead of humans and then Great Chief Dogg Rabid thinks about it for a moment while chewing on a lambleg and finaslly says to them "ok, but you have to be a little bit evil or I won't let you go" and then they are ordered to rape the whales before killing them all before being allowed to emigrate to Greenland where they become Carib eskimoes. They agree since they don't want to eat people and they have high sense of honor since they are virtous men in Carib land.

Thus a new society is born in the far north... Whale Rapers - Kill them all! Better known as: The Whalers or the Whaleskinmoes

Just an idea... I'm trying to spread Carib culture and thinking around the world.

And then I says to him: 'Ken, ya needz to go settle and have a family."

 

[Dachs]

India invented zero and the decimal system OTL for you information. I'm tired of this Eurocentraisim.

BS. Babylon did, as a placeholder. The Greeks brought the basic idea, which they loathed, to India, where the Indians made use of it in other ways, but did not crack the idea of infinity (1/0). That was done by a few Englishmen about two thousand years later. Principia Mathematica.

 

[silver 2039]

BS. Babylon did, as a placeholder. The Greeks brought the basic idea, which they loathed, to India, where the Indians made use of it in other ways, but did not crack the idea of infinity (1/0). That was done by a few Englishmen about two thousand years later. Principia Mathematica.

I suggest you read up

Ancient Indians developed a system of mathematics far superior, to that of the Greeks. Ancient Vedic mathematicians devised sutras for solving mathematical problems with apparent ease. Among the most vital parts of our heritage are the numerals and the decimal system. The miscalled "Arabic" numerals are found on the Rock Edicts of Ashoka (250 B.C.), a thousand years before their occurrence in Arabic literature. Hindsaa (numerals) in Arabic means from India. Jawaharlal Nehru has said, " The clumsy method of using a counting frame and the use of Roman and such like numerals had long ******** progress when the ten Indian numerals, including the zero sign, liberated the human mind from these restrictions and threw a flood of light on the behavior of numbers."

(source: The Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru Oxford University Press. 1995 p. 216).

Indians were the first to use the 'zero' as a symbol in mathematics. They invented the present numerical system. India teachers taught arithmetic and algebra, Vedic Sulva Sutras were earlier than the Alexandrian geometry of Hero. The earliest available work was Bakshali Manuscript. Ganita-Sara-Sangraham of Mahavira acarya who lived between Brahmagupta and Bhaskaracharya.

source: Hinduism and Scientific Quest - By T R. R. Iyengar p. 151-152).

The most fundamental contribution of ancient India in mathematics is the invention of decimal system of enumeration, including the invention of zero. The decimal system uses nine digits (1 to 9) and the symbol zero (for nothing) to denote all natural numbers by assigning a place value to the digits. The Arabs carried this system to Africa and Europe. The Vedas and Valmiki Ramayana used this system, though the exact dates of these works are not known. MohanjoDaro and Harappa excavations (which may be around 3000 B.C. old) also give specimens of writing in India. Aryans came 1000 years later, around 2000 B.C.

Said the great and magnanimous Pierre Simon de Laplace, (1749-1827) French mathematician, philosopher, and astronomer, a contemporary of Napoleon :

" It is India that gave us the ingenious method of expressing all numbers by ten symbols, each receiving a value of position as well as an absolute value, a profound and important idea which appears so simple to us now that we ignore its true merit. But its very simplicity, the great ease which it has lent to all computations, puts our arithmetic in the first rank of useful inventions, and we shall appreciate the grandeur of this achievement the more when we remember that it escaped the genius of Archimedes and Appollnius, two of the greatest men produced by antiquity."

(source: The Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru Oxford University Press. 1995 p. 217)

The decimal system was known to Aryabhatta and Brahmagupta long before its appearance in the writings of the Arabs and the Syrians; it was adopted by China from Buddhist missionaries; and Muhammad Ibn Musa al-Khwarazni, the greatest mathematician of his age (ca 850 A.D.), seems to have introduced it into Baghdad.

Zero, this most modest and most valuable of all numerals is one of the subtle gifts of India to mankind. The earliest use of the zero symbol, so far discovered, is in one of the scriptural books dated about 200 B.C. The zero, called shunya or nothing, was originally a dot and later it became a small circle. It was considered as a number like any other. Professor G. B. Halsted, in his book ' Mathematics for the Million' (London 1942) thus emphasizes the vital significance of this invention:

another modern mathematician has grown eloquent over this historic event. Dantzig in his 'Number' writes:

"This long period of nearly five thousand years saw the rise and fall of many a civilization, each leaving behind a heritage of literature, art, philosophy, and religion. But what was the net achievement in the field of reckoning, the earliest art practiced by man? An inflexible numeration so crude as to make progress well nigh impossible, and a calculating device so limited in scope that even elementary calculations called for the services of an expert.....When viewed in this light the achievements of the unknown Hindu, who sometime in the first centuries of our era discovered the principle of position, assumes the importance of a world event."

Dantzig is puzzled at the fact that the great mathematicians of Greece did not stumble on this discovery.

"Is it that the Greeks had such a marked contempt for applied science, leaving even the instruction of their children to the slaves? But if so, how is it that the nation that gave us geometry and carried this science so far did not create a rudimentary algebra? that corner-stone of modern mathematics, also originated in India, and at about the same time that positional numeration did?"

(source: The Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru Oxford University Press. 1995 p. 218)


An important Mathematics book prescribed by the New York State Education Department acknowledges the debt in the following words:

"The Western world owes a greof research include probability theory and artificial intelligence.He is a mathematician and science writer, author of Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea, says:

“In the whole history of Mathematics, there has been no more revolutionary step than the one which the Hindus made when they invented the sign ‘0’ for the empty column of the counting frame.”

(source: Mathematics for the Million - by Lancelot Hogben p. 47).


The Notion of Infinity and zero:

There is a beautiful definition of the infinite in the following line of a Vedic mantra, which forms the introductory verse to the Isa Upanishad:

It says: Take the whole (Infinite Brahman) from the whole, and the whole still remains. This is almost like the mathematician, Cantor's definition of infinity.

The very names of the numerals are of Sanskrit origin. Professor Arthur Macdonell says in his A History of Sanskrit Literature: "During the eighth and ninth centuries, the Indians became the teachers in arithmetic and algebra of the Arabs, and through them of the nations of the west. Thus, though we call the latter science by an Arabic name, it is a gift we owe to India."

(source: Indian Culture and the Modern Age - By Dewan Bahadur K. S. Ramaswami Sastri Annamalai University. 1956 p.66-67).at deal to India for a simple invention. It was developed by an unknown Indian more than 1500 years ago. Without it most of the great discoveries and inventions (including computers) of western civilization would never have come about. This invention was the decimal system of numerals - nine digits and a zero. The science and technology of today (including the computers) could not have developed if we had only the Roman system of numerals. That system is too clumsy to be used as a scientific too. Today we take the decimal system for granted. We don't think about how brilliant the man who invented zero must have been. Yet without zero we could not assign a place value to the digits. That ancient mathematician, whoever, he was, deserves much honor."


(source: Harry Shor and Gloria Meng, Exploring Algebra).

Charles Seife, a journalist with Science magazine, has also written for New Scientist, Scientific American, The Economist, Science, Wired UK, The Sciences, and numerous other publications. He holds an M.S. in mathematics from Yale University and his areas